Entries in IMF
(7)

Chinese President Xi Jinping (C, front) meets with representatives of 21 Asian countries at the founding of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Beijing on Oct. 24, 2014. (Image courtesy of Xinhua/Huang Jingwen)News leaked a couple of years ago that China was promoting establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The AIIB will compete for project funding against the IMF, World Bank, and Asia Development Bank, all seen as being under the thumb of the U.S., Europe, and Japan.

Economist Vito Tanzi once said that when rules can be used to extract bribes, more rules will be created. And when more rules appear, more bribes will be needed to bargain down the red tape, and so on.

French prosecutors Wednesday placed Christine Lagarde, the chief of the International Monetary Fund, under official investigation for negligence in a French corruption investigation that stems from her time as France's finance minister.

The International Finance Corporation and the World Bank released their new Doing Business Index this week. It's the 11th annual report measuring business regulations for local firms -- how easy or hard it is to do business in the countries surveyed. It focuses on small and medium-size companies operating in the largest business city of an economy.

Christine Lagarde (photo courtesy of the IMF)A French court has decided not to formally investigate IMF chief Christine Lagarde over her role in a controversial payoff while she was finance minister but did name her as a key witness in the continuing probe.